The Blog @ Spolitics

3rd Presidential Debate Wish List

McCain’s supporters are hoping McCain will go after Obama on Ayers tonight. Obama’s connection to Ayers should give Americans second thoughts, but the problem is, the Obama campaign (and their enablers in the media) have successfully painted the issue as dirty politics. Also, the issue is not new and so the arguments will just be a rehash of what has already played out in the media. The damage will be limited.

The Ayers connection needs to be mentioned if only because Obama has been taunting McCain to say it to his face. But McCain needn’t focus on it. Instead, he should focus on Obama’s time as the Chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Obama held the purse strings on tens of millions of dollars earmarked for education and the way he doled out the money is one of the more specific and damaging indicators of what Obama values. The fact that Obama funded a group that suggested teaching kids to celebrate Juneteenth instead of July 4th, coupled with the fact that he rejected funding for a group that wanted to help Latinos improve their math skills is the most effective way to illustrate to voters the priorities they would find in an Obama administration. Furthermore, an independent review found that the money did nothing to improve education — under Obama’s stewardship, the money was wasted. There’s no reason to believe Obama would be anymore effective with our tax dollars.

And then, after knocking Obama on his heels, McCain can wrap up by mentioning that the CAC was put together by Bill Ayers.